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Thursday, April 27, 2006
Home-grown solutions
for low-income housing
Charlotte a
leader in mixed
development
Continued from page 1A
and the Housing Partnership
are strengthening ties with
government and corporations
to finance construction.
The 32-acre Park at
Oaklawn, for instance, was
built with $34.7 million in
federal HOPE VI funding,
the last U.S. dollars for the
housing program that has
been cut by the Bush admin
istration, only to be reinstat-
“HOPE VI isn’t dead, but
it’s on its last legs,” CHA
Director Charles Woodyard
said.
Live Oak, which sits on a 9-
acre site located off Fairview
Road near SouthPark Mall,
will be rebuilt from 32 aging
townhomes into a mixed-
income development of 290
units on 4.62 acres, including
50 for the elderly. At least 82
units will be low-income
apartments.
The housing authority will
sell the remaining land for
mixed-use development with
the City Council’s OK. the
proceeds will help pay for
more housing in Charlotte.
“In places where you have
new affordable housing, you
will have mixed-us^, mixed-
income neighborhoods,”
Howard said. “The days of
low-income (residents living)
together without having
something a couple of steps
above that are done. You don’t
want to have to come back in
20 years and redevelop it
again.”
Charlotte is in the forefront
of subsidizing mixed-income
housing along with Atlanta,
Dallas, Ttexas and San
Francisco. In each city, there’s
a movement to eliminate eco
nomic barriers between mid
dle- and low-income families.
“”It’s no longer a one size
fits all approach,” Woodyard
said.
Challenges remain, partic
ularly in funding. Without
government money, more
emphasis is being put on
building relationships with
corporations who are looking
to maximize profits.
Woodyard said getting their
support - and money - is a
balancing act.
‘You have to know the
financial tools and how to-*
make it work,” he said. ‘You
won’t find the market rate (of
traditional single-family
developments), but there is a
cash return.”
As more people move here,
that concept will need to keep
pace with families that’ll
need an affordable place to
five.
“As long as Charlotte con
tinues to grow and people
move here, we’re going to
have that problem,” Howard
said. “What we need to do is
continue to build affordable -
and safe - housing.”
Ethnicity a factor in New Orleans
By Hazel Trice Edney
NATIONAL NEWSPAPER PUBUSHERS ASSOCIATION
WASHINGTON - Race will be a major factor
in New Orleans’ May 20 runoff election for
mayor even though the two finalists — incum
bent Ray Nagin and Lt. Gov. Mitch Landreiu -
have proven that they can attract support from
members of the opposite rate, political
observers predict.
“No matter what the larger campaign group
collectively decides, race will be an indelible
factor in the outcome,” says political scientist
Lorenzo Morris, chairman of the Department
of Political Science at Howard University.
“Though Landrieu is certainly not a
Republican, he represents by image and by
general characteristics of the New Orleans
electorate, someone who is more to the right
than Nagin. What will happen is where race is
a factor, blacks will tend to vote more likely
than before for the black candidate, even if his
politics in recent years wasn't the most appeal
ing to them.”
Nagin is black and Landrieu is white.
Saturday’s voting apparently said as much
about how Whites vote as it did about black
voting patterns.
Four years ago, Nagin was all but rejected by
New Orleans’ black electorate, winning over
whelmingly with support from 90 percent
white voters. However, in a field of 22 candi
dates, Nagin won only 10 percent of predomi
nately white precincts and about 66 percent
among those in black neighborhoods. Landrieu
carried 24 percent of the black vote and 30 per
cent of the white vote.
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Correction
An article in last week’s Post misidentified
Mordecai Scott’s birth order and number of sib
lings (“Kings of the ball: Students earn free for
mal wear for prom”). Scott, a senior at West
Charlotte High School, is the third of eight chil
dren.
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